Saturday, November 26, 2016

Mike O’Malley knows the power of radio, and specifically the unique bond between Country radio and its listeners.

Prior to his consulting life, he logged over 20 years including PD jobs in Baltimore, Washington DC with a 5 year finale in New York City, where he was hired by NBC to flip WYNY to country.Now as a name partner in one of America’s leading consulting firms, he has teamed with radio icon Jaye Albright and longtime Seattle PD Becky Brenner to form Albright, O’Malley and Brenner, a consulting firm specializing in Country radio.

Click HERE to visit site

Not surprisingly, Mike offers some key tips to Country radio’s success, including some fundamentals which can apply to stations and show hosts in ANY format.

He also shares significant insights on things he knows NOW that he wishes he’d known then. As always, Mike gives his unique brand of solid info for anyone looking to advance their career.

Every PD has access to a powerful marketing tool. This tool, worth millions of dollars, is a renewable resource available to PDs at almost no charge. Here’s the catch. To take advantage of the tool requires imagination and hard work. The tool is your air, your primary on-air channel.

In our experience what separates good stations from great stations are a small number of major differences. Great stations use their own air to promote station image and drive occasions of listening. In diary markets, the great stations also use their own air to help listeners rehearse literate behavior – they teach them how to remember and write the name of the station.

Inventory: establish a promo inventory with the same discipline and practice as you do your commercial inventory. This multi-million dollar renewable resource needs to be respected to be effective.

Creative: the best non-program audio on your air should be your promos. The promos on your air this week become your latest sizzle reel, if not, you’ve got work to do.

Pro tip: repetition is learning, reach and frequency are essential. Consult your sales team to discover your OES (optimum effective scheduling). Example: how many times does your promo need to run in order to deliver a 60 reach with a 4 frequency against the promo’s target demo? Scheduling your promos needs to be informed by the hard data (e.g., Nielsen)

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Ever notice: many LOCAL radio hosts make superficial references to their market, but only the superstars really OWN their market?

Historically, radio has produced many great examples. However, in this era of tight budgets and greater dependance on national shows, that list is shrinking to an elite few. By any standards, Twin Cities morning icon DAVE RYAN tops this list.

In this episode of "Brandwidth on Demand", Dave shares some key points leading to his longevity at the top of his game ─ and the top of the ratings!

In the EXPANDED PLAY, Dave also shares his experience at the JOB INTERVIEW that brought him to his current position, all those quarter-hours ago!

In this wide-ranging episode, he also shares commonalities between strong managers, dealing with weak leaders, and how to thrive in any management situation. (SPOILER ALERT: he also shares when you KNOW it’s time to move on!)

Import and Export

Over the majority of Radio’s history the mission of audience development involved persuading listeners to tune-in, to encourage audience’s to come to – and report when asked - our dial position. We’ve been deeply engaged in the business of import. This battle, for what Larry Rosin and his Edison Research team call Share of Ear, is ongoing. Get the audience to listen, listen longer and listen again during those times they are available and want to use audio.
The game changed about twenty years ago. In the first wave of digital we made our web sites and HD side channels secondary tune-in targets, creating and promoting digital content. In the second wave of digital we’re getting into the business of export. Creating and exporting content to platforms owned by others. Social networks now capture significant shares of time and attention with our audiences. The mission of audience development now also includes identifying those platforms preferred by our audiences and creating, promoting content tailored to each platform.

Today our objectives are clear. Continue to grow Share of Ear while also growing shares of time and attention across the brave new world of digital.

We are often asked “Given all the changes and disruption happening in media today including some claiming every company is now a media company what business are we in?” My suggestion is the most successful media firms are those which understand the big picture, the view from 40,000 feet, and that is, we are in the business of changing behavior.

Every member of our team needs to be focused on changing behavior. Examples: our sales team works to change purchase behaviors, our programming team strives to change consumption behaviors. This activity involves three moving parts.

Audiences & Advertisers. Do the homework required to understand audience and advertiser behaviors. What are they doing? What are they not doing? This involves employing or developing metrics, measures to ensure we grasp marketplace reality.

Culture & Strategy. What specific things are we doing to influence and change behaviors? What’s working? What’s not working? We have an urgent need to get everyone on our team on the same page. What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent?

Innovation. What can we do to get different, to different, to stand out from the crowd of available, obvious options? How can we create value which is unique and sustainable?

Changing behavior starts with being open and serious about changing our own behavior.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Brian Kelly, a longtime radio vet, has spent the last 20+ years at Entercom-Milwaukee, where he currently serves as Vice President of Operations at Top 40 KISS-FM (WXSS), Hot AC WMYX (The Mix), and SportsRadio 105.7 The Fan. He also advises Entercom stations in other markets.

Previous successes include WTMX, WLS and WFYR all in Chicago along with notable stops in other Midwestern markets.

Brian is identified by colleagues as a “fantastic manager and more importantly, a fantastic human being.” One former staffer notes, “If you ever have the opportunity to work with him, take advantage; you'll walk away a better professional for it.”

In this wide ranging interview, Brian shares tips for 'hiring your next boss' and moving up within a good company, both skills at which he has excelled.

He also offers exceptionally solid tips for newly-minted PD's and Managers, as well as some "Things he knows NOW that he WISHES he'd known THEN!"

Every success begins with carefully defining the objective. Whether you want to be the #1 morning show or the #1 station in your target demo, the starting point is clearly stating the objective.Don’t confuse activity with progress. You need metrics, measures which provide you with an indication of where you are in relation to your objective. Progress is made when your activity closes the gap between where you are and your objective.The best approach to getting to your objective involves learning how to fail faster – discovering what’s working and what’s not – and being resilient, changing up your game and monitoring results. Staying focused on the gap rather than the objective will influence your activity and help you achieve your objective in a more effective and efficient way.